June 17 marks the first anniversary of the death of investigative journalist Michael Hastings. Just 33 years old, Hastings died in a car crash at a time when he was considered of one of the country’s most daring young reporters. His dispatches from Iraq and Afghanistan unveiled the hidden realities of war. His 2010 Rolling Stone article on General Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, sparked a political controversy after McChrystal and his aides were quoted making disparaging remarks about top administration officials. The article exposed longstanding government discord over the Afghan War’s direction and led to McChrystal’s firing. One year after his death, Hastings’ reporting has made waves once again. In 2012, Hastings wrote a major investigation for Rolling Stone on the American prisoner of war, Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. At the time, Hastings thought it was the most important story of his career. But it only recently earned widespread attention after Bergdahl’s release for five Taliban members sparked a political firestorm. In his report, Hastings revealed Bergdahl was profoundly disillusioned with the Afghan War and may have walked away from his base as a result. With Bergdahl still silent as he recovers from five years in Taliban captivity, Hastings’ article remains the definitive account of the young soldier’s story. Today, another major work from Hastings is upon us: “The Last Magazine,” a posthumous novel and scathing satire of the corporate news media based on Hastings’ time at Newsweek. We are joined by Hastings’ widow, Elise Jordan, who brought the book to life after coming across the manuscript following her husband’s death.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AARON MATÉ: This week marks the first anniversary of the death of investigative journalist Michael Hastings. Just 33 years old, Hastings died in a car crash that ended the life of one of the country’s most daring young reporters. His dispatches from Iraq and Afghanistan unveiled the hidden realities of war. A 2010 Rolling Stone article on General Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, sparked a political controversy after McChrystal and his aides were quoted making disparaging remarks about top administration officials. The article exposed longstanding government discord over the Afghan War’s direction and led to McChrystal’s firing.

AMY GOODMAN: One year after his death, Michael Hastings’ reporting has made waves once again. In 2012, Hastings wrote a major piece for Rolling Stone on the American prisoner of war, Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. At the time, Hastings thought it was the most important story of his career. In 2012, Hastings spoke to Russia Today about Bowe Bergdahl’s case.

MICHAEL HASTINGS: I think this is the most significant and undercovered story about the war in Afghanistan from an American perspective. It’s a story about the only prisoner of war who’s left in these two wars. And under normal circumstances, he would be a cause célèbre everywhere. But because of the nature of why he was left and why he got—and how he got captured, he has been sort of buried. The Pentagon has intentionally sort of buried his case, for a variety of reasons.

OK, so, and as to what drove—excuse me—as to what drove Bowe Bergdahl to leave, first you have to look at—he was a 23-year-old kid who joined the Army, and he expected that he was going to go over to Afghanistan and help people and be involved in this nation building and essentially humanitarian activity. What he found when he got there was completely different. He thought that he had been sold a lie. He thought that he was not being treated with respect by the superior officers. There was a serious command problem within his unit in Afghanistan. There was a serious breakdown in command. One officer died, another got fired. Three of his—the people he respected were kicked out. And so, that created this sort of perfect storm. You have this sort of disillusionment happening, plus all these sort of horrible things he’s seeing with war, that drove him to the decision to leave.

AARON MATÉ: The late Michael Hastings speaking in 2012. His article on Bowe Bergdahl only recently earned widespread attention after Bergdahl’s release for five Taliban members sparked a political firestorm. In his report, Hastings was first to quote from emails sent by Bergdahl to his parents just before he went missing. In one email, Bergdahl wrote, quote, “I am sorry for everything here. … These people need help, yet what they get is the most conceited country in the world telling them that they are nothing and that they are stupid, that they have no idea how to live. The horror that is america is disgusting.” His father responded, quote, “Obey your conscience.” Today, with Bergdahl still silent as he recovers from five years in Taliban captivity, Hastings’ article remains the definitive account of the young soldier’s story.

AMY GOODMAN: Today, to mark the first anniversary of Michael Hastings’ death, which is actually tomorrow, another major work from Michael Hastings is upon us. It’s not an investigative report but a posthumous novel, a satire Hastings wrote of the corporate news media based on his time at Newsweek. The book is called The Last Magazine. Michael Hastings’ widow, Elise Jordan, helped bring the book to life after coming across the manuscript following her husband’s death. Elise Jordan is a journalist, political commentator. She served as a director for communications in the National Security Council from 2008 to ’09 and was a speechwriter for Condoleezza Rice. In fact, you met Michael when you were a speechwriter for Condoleezza Rice?

ELISE JORDAN: Yes, and then we knew each other for a couple years, and then we started dating actually when we were both in Afghanistan. I was doing a story on female marines in Helmand, and he was doing the McChrystal story. So it was right before—it was during the process he was interviewing and embedded with the team.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you met this young, crusading journalist, who never thought his piece on McChrystal would actually take him down.

ELISE JORDAN: No, I mean, he thought that it might cause waves for a day or two, but he didn’t—you know, the message of the piece, for him, was the story of counterinsurgency in Afghanistan and of General McChrystal’s really strict rules of engagement, which—courageous restraint, which means the troops weren’t allowed the same force protection measures and were very upset about these rules of engagement.

AMY GOODMAN: And he went on to write the Bowe Bergdahl story, thinking, “My god, if the McChrystal story had this response, Bowe Bergdahl is going to blow everyone out of the water.”

ELISE JORDAN: Exactly, and I love how in the piece he predicted that it would become hugely politicized and that bringing Bowe Bergdahl home would start to signal the end of the Afghan War. He thought that there would be a firestorm immediately after publication two years ago. That firestorm came now—and, I think, is exactly the message of his book, The Last Magazine, in terms of what the establishment media seizes on as to make a story. The country didn’t care, the media didn’t care, overall, that this lone sergeant was in captivity for five years, but then, suddenly, when there’s the opportunity to politicize it and to re-victimize someone who has been tortured for five years, everyone’s all over it. And then, that’s disgusting and something that would have really angered Michael.

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, this is a rocking satire. So, Michael Hastings was an intern at Newsweek, and Michael M. Hastings is sort of the star of this book, this, quote, “novel.” But talk about who we’re talking about here, who the characters are. You’ve got Nishant Patel, the international editor; Sanders Berman, the managing editor; sort of thinly veiled Fareed Zakaria and, as well, Jon Meacham?

ELISE JORDAN: Well, they’re composites. I would say that Michael was certainly influenced by his time at Newsweek, but he had a vivid imagination, and it’s a talented work of fiction. That said, I think what he wanted to show was establishment media and how—cheerleading the Iraq War for career advancement, and how quickly that cheerleading turned as soon as the war turned. Instead of looking at what they had chosen to support and trying to find a solution, you know, they wanted to forget as quickly as possible that they had ever been the one, you know, beating the drumbeat to war.

AARON MATÉ: So the first anniversary of his death is tomorrow. After he died, there was all sorts of theories. People were analyzing the scene of the wreckage. I remember there was a YouTube videos of the crash, people looking at the engine. Before he died, Hastings had sent an email to colleagues saying his reporting was under investigation. You’ve been very clear, though, to basically reject all these conspiracy theories.

ELISE JORDAN: Correct. Unfortunately, it was a tragic accident. I think that sometimes things are so horrible and tragic that we want to have an explanation that seems to make a little more sense, just that—just then, you know, we lost one of the greatest journalists ever in American history, at least in my humble opinion. So—

AMY GOODMAN: We actually had the person who helped work on that piece with Bowe Bergdahl, Matt Farwell, who said, though, on the issue of the FBI investigating, that Michael was so concerned about, in fact that they were.

ELISE JORDAN: Oh, they were.

AMY GOODMAN: They were investigating, right, Michael for his piece on Bowe Bergdahl, even though, in a very rare move, the FBI said they weren’t conducting an investigation after Hastings’ death.

ELISE JORDAN: Well, and Matt Farwell is a wonderful friend and collaborator, and I’m so happy that he and Michael were able to work together on that story, which wouldn’t have happened without Matt, Michael always said. Such a well-researched story. They—it really is just an example of the Obama administration’s crackdown on journalism. They, Michael and Matt, were able to find out more information about what actually happened and Bowe’s motivations than the U.S. government. And that apparently is scary and threatening and causes us to investigate Michael Hastings and Matt Farwell, which I really don’t understand.

AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go back to Michael. He was on Democracy Now! in 2012. He said the Afghan War, like the invasion of Iraq, was based on a false premise.

MICHAEL HASTINGS: If WMDs were the big lie of the Iraq War, the safe haven myth is the big lie of the Afghan War. And what I mean by that—and this was true in Iraq, as well—but 99 percent of the people, maybe even higher, honestly, the people we’re fighting, whether it was Sunni insurgents in Iraq or Shiite militias in Iraq or in Afghanistan, the Taliban never actually posed a threat to the United States homeland. So the question one has to ask oneself is that if everything we’re doing and everyone we’re fighting is not actually a threat to the United States—certainly not a direct threat, by any means, by any means—then why are we expending so many resources, $120 billion a year, you know, with all the lives lost, to do it? And that’s—and again, this is the big lie of counterinsurgency, which I know we’ve discussed on your show. To justify this tremendous outlay of resources, they have to say, “Oh, no, we’re killing terrorists.” But everybody knows that that’s not true.

AMY GOODMAN: Michael Hastings in 2012 talking about the Iraq and as well as Afghan War. He reported from Iraq as well as Afghanistan. Elise Jordan, this, again, the anniversary of his death. You had written a letter to The New York Times objecting to their obituary of your husband, of Michael.

ELISE JORDAN: Yes, it was factually inaccurate. It was shameful. I can’t believe The New York Times has reported erroneously on my husband’s reporting basically every time they decided to write anything about his reporting. But I really didn’t think that they would go that low in someone’s obituary. It was just tasteless.

AMY GOODMAN: What was wrong?

ELISE JORDAN: They cited the Pentagon report that “cleared” McChrystal and his aides of any wrongdoing.

AMY GOODMAN: For our radio listeners, you put little air quotes around “cleared.”

ELISE JORDAN: Yeah, because the Pentagon—Michael did not participate in the investigation. He didn’t believe that the role of the reporter was to turn over your notebooks to the government. But of course the Pentagon is going to clear—it’s all—and if you actually read the report, it’s pure speculation. “Oh, well, we don’t remember exactly. We don’t”—it’s so vague, and that’s what upset me. You can’t—if you print a paragraph about a report, the journalist should actually read the report and then have some context and decide, oh, well, maybe this report doesn’t actually clear McChrystal and aides. So—

AMY GOODMAN: So they did this in life, and they did this in death.

ELISE JORDAN: Yes, I think Michael’s reporting was really threatening to the establishment, and I think that’s what he really gets out in this book. When he was talking about what he called the lies of counterinsurgency, what he wanted to do with this book was to talk about how the lies are aided along by the news media and the complicity of so many journalists and so many status quo journalists in promoting this.

AMY GOODMAN: Michael Hastings’ book, The Last Magazine, is out today. Elise Jordan, thanks so much for being with us.

According to City News Service Hastings, 33, “was driving south on Highland Avenue when he apparently lost control of the compact (2013 Mercedes Benz CLK250) near Melrose Avenue and crashed into palm trees in the median about 4:20 a.m. Tuesday (June 18). The car’s engine reportedly ended up about 200 feet away from the impact site.”

An eyewitness at the scene, Jose, employed at nearby business ALSCO Inc said, the car was travelling very fast and he heard a couple explosions shortly before the car crashed. In fact, the explosion was so intense that it took the LA County assistant corner, Ed Winter, two days to identify the burned-beyond recognition body of Hastings. Officials confirm that an autopsy has been performed, but the cause of death is pending. LAPD media spokesperson Lieutenant Andrew Neiman said, “it will take several weeks to get the toxicology results.” By stark contrast, in Italy, ‘Sopranos’ star James Gandolfini’s family received the toxicology report within a few days.

Despite the intensity of the single car accident, an LAPD statement determined that there was “no foul play” involved.

Shortly after his death, a number of reports surfaced that fueled conspiracy theories across the Internet.

It was first revealed that Hastings reportedly reached out to Wikileaaks attorney Jennifer Robinson just a few hours prior to his death, claiming the FBI was investigating him. The FBI has denied that Hastings was ever under investigation.

An email Hastings sent to friends and colleagues hours before his death created even more mystery. It read:

“Subject: FBI Investigation, re: NSA -Hey (redacted names) — the Feds are interviewing my ‘close friends and associates.’ Perhaps if the authorities arrive ‘BuzzFeed GQ,’ er HQ, may be wise to immediately request legal counsel before any conversations or interviews about our news gathering practices or related journalism issues. Also: I’m onto a big story, and need to go off the rada[r] for a bit.

All the best, and hope to see you all soon. Michael”

In his book, “The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan,” Hastings revealed that a former McChrystal staffer threatened to hunt him down and kill him “if we don’t like what you write.” Hastings claimed he replied: “Well, I get death threats like that about once a year, so no worries.”

After reading accounts of the car crash and examining the scene of the accident erroneous details were hard to overlook. Stories discussed the road as narrow, not true, it’s a four-lane road with a large median dividing traffic. Some reports said there was a curve in the road, also not true; in fact it’s straight freeway-to-freeway. Also, there was no damage to the median curb, only fire discoloration. But the most significant missing evidence was the absence of any skid marks—even though the car made a 60-degree turn into a palm tree.

Research of this topic reveals a new angle to this story, namely —Boston Brakes.

This theory was explained by a former Marine Gordon Duff who refers to the “Boston Brakes” technique, in which “drive by wire” cars, specifically a Mercedes Benz, can be manipulated remotely to simulate an out-of-control accident, according to his Veterans Today story (The 2010 story is a must read). The story details are eerily similar to Hastings fiery accident scene as there were no skid marks.

Adding credence to the possible car-hacking scenario is former U.S. National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism Richard Clarke. After news broke on the Hastings car accident, he confirmed the “drive by wire” concept.

Law enforcement officials have also discussed the unusual intensity of the fire inside Hastings car. “It’s highly unusual since gasoline generally doesn’t burn that hot,” the report adds. The video of the car fire appears to resemble a “thermite” burn.

“No matter how you slice this highly suspicious car accident, a Mercedes is not going to explode into flames without assistance” XETV-TV explains.

Automobile experts reportedly claim fires in new cars occur due to three main reasons: “Running the engine out of oil, running the engine out of coolant, or a mammoth car mangling accident, that leaves the hot side of the battery to short out against the frame before it reaches the fuse panel.”

WikiLeaks: Late Journalist Michael Hastings Said He Was Under FBI Investigation

MURDER THE MESSENGER

In another disclosure from WikiLeaks, the group is claiming the late journalist Michael Hastings said he was under FBI investigation just before he died. Hastings was killed in an early morning car wreck Tuesday in Los Angeles. In a Twitter message on Wednesday, WikiLeaks said: “Michael Hastings contacted WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before he died, saying that the FBI was investigating him.”

Actor James Gandolfini Dies at 51

ZERO DARK THIRTY-PAYBACK MURDER

The actor James Gandolfini has died at the age of 51. He reportedly died of a heart attack while on vacation with his family in Italy. Best known for playing the troubled mob boss Tony Soprano on the acclaimed television series “The Sopranos,” Gandolfini was a fixture of the stage and screen in New York City. He was a board member at New York’s Downtown Community Television, producing the documentary films, “Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq” and “Wartorn 1861-2010,” about wounded U.S. soldiers. In a statement, DCTV co-founder Jon Alpert said: “James Gandolfini loved community media and hated war. He made the world better and more interesting for many people.”

Buying Up the Planet: Out-of-control Central Banks on a Corporate Buying Spree

“Finance is the new form of warfare – without the expense of a military overhead and an occupation against unwilling hosts. It is a competition in credit creation to buy foreign resources, real estate, public and privatized infrastructure, bonds and corporate stock ownership. Who needs an army when you can obtain the usual objective (monetary wealth and asset appropriation) simply by financial means?” — Dr. Michael Hudson, Counterpunch, October…

The ISIL Army has invaded Iraq and no one is happier than the New World Empire, the royal energy cartels, and the corporate war making profiteers that comprise the cabal of the 1/10th of one percent global ruling class. Wow, unlimited upside for the defense contactors, oil cartels and inside traders in the Wall Street Casino.

These are the ‘rebels’ who fight Syria’s despot Assad, and they were trained, armed and financed by the CIA, just like Osama Bin Laden was decades ago. Their ranks are led by former commanders of Saddam Husseins’s Republican Guard who fled the US invasion and vowed to form a guerilla army.Their choreographed assault on Iraq and the escalation of muslim against muslim slaughter not only fuels the economies of the multi-national global fascists, but it offers more pretexts for clamping down on dissent and freedom of the press, NSA spying and assassination of journalists and protesters. It is also a delight to the Zionist puppet masters and their goal of a global authoritarian surveillance police state., with Jerusalem as the world capital. What Me Nuts ? Read the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. If fictional, and anti-semitic as widely denounced, it has served the cause of tyranny well, and has been a virtual blueprint for the New Word Order created since WWII. The multi-national too big to fail banks and energy cartels are firmly in control of global events , in fact they orchestrate them, just as they manipulate stocks, currency and commodity markets.

Barockefeller is just a capo in the Global Mafia, and the best friend of the fascist financial empires of the ruling elite. This is every presidents prime function, Continuity of Government, or COG., and the government is by the corporations, for the corporations and the people are slaves to the ruling class. Democracy died when JFK was murdered by the CIA. America needs a New Deal and a real leader like Franklin D. Roosevelt to crush the enemy within. President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us of this enemy from within in his 1961 farewell speech, it is the military-industrial-congressional complex, which in turn are subservient to the global royal banking families: The Rothschilds, Rockefellers, Lazards, Warburgs, Kuhn-Loebs who own the federal reserve.

This is no surprise. It is just another episode in the scripted drama of universal war, and America is again the mercenary army in the global chess game played by the puppet masters of the New World Empire.

ISIL vs. Israel: two sides of the same coin

“What the Zionists are doing in Israel is exactly what ISIL (Islamic state in Iraq and the Levant) or Al Qaeda is aspiring to achieve”

… By Dr. Ashraf Ezzat (VT-Egypt)

It must have been an alarming shock, I know it was to me, when the breaking news of the sudden and swift fall of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, to the hands and daggers of Jihadist militants of ISIL (Islamic state of Iraq and the Levant) – a parallel to some of the raids by early Islamic medieval conquests (some say)

Ironically, the nowadays Muslim school children are being told in their history books that the Early Muslim conquests were so civilized and peaceful. And that the natives of the then non-Arab countries simply welcomed the Muslim armies with Jubilation and eagerness to convert to Islam (no mention of sword and coercion)

What astonished me was the little resistance ISIL militants had encountered before they raided with their black flags and convoys of armed pickup trucks one Iraqi town after another; Mosul, Tikrit, Salah El Din and Bayji.

Something went terribly wrong. The Iraqi police and military forces were simply abandoning their positions, uniforms and weapons.

The Iraqi soldiers and officers were committing the ultimate sin, according to the military code of conduct, namely desertion.

Iraqi soldiers ( mostly Shia) were not actually over-numbered or under-equipped they were simply faithless. They somehow lost their belief in the value of their role as defenders of their nation (or the Sunni part of it)

Maybe Iraqi soldiers had uniforms, vehicles and weaponry and training but they lacked the most vital ammunition a soldier should obtain and treasure; loyalty and patriotism.

According to the military law those Iraqi soldiers were committing high treason. They were fleeing and selling out their homeland and country.

Of course there were exceptions; there were fine soldiers who fought hard and even died in the battle field –decapitated by those ISIL savages

But it was obvious that ISIL militias were advancing, in the Sunni territories of Iraq, towards Baghdad with no military resistance. Moreover, their advance and capture of military bases were also facilitated by local hard-core Sunni natives.

The ISIL advance was so unexpectedly easy-going, its militants focused on looting military bases and banks and filming propaganda videos.

This whole scene might have come as a shock to many of the regular viewers and news follower around the Middle East and the world, but I believe political analysts and politicians had seen it coming a long time ago.

Iraq was the first Arab country to get hit and invaded by the American and so called allied forces soon after the 9/11 attacks.

Iraq, a country not involved in 9/11 nor posed a direct threat to American interests and security, was chosen as the model to launch and apply the chaos scenario of 4th generation warfare on its land. Maybe Iraq did not pose a threat to US, but it did to Israel.

Iraq, an ancient nation with a rich culture, had a stable governing system with growing solid economy and a strong military but the Iraqi leadership showed anti-Israeli sentiments. That bothered Tel Aviv, and consequently it had to bother Washington.

9/11 and war in Iraq

It was already two years since the covert Israeli masterpiece attack, aka 9/11, and seemed like the right time to start profiting from this grand false flag operation.

Those who planned for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan knew they were not planning another Vietnam. This was something else, something new.

In Vietnam US politicians and military were dragged very deep into a jungle they had no f***ing idea what they were getting into.

In Iraq all that changed. The US knew better than to put boots on ground open-endedly.

The theory of 4th generation warfare weaved with the creative chaos one guaranteed that a swift but devastating blow to the infrastructure and the military of any target nation would yield the desired result on the long run, namely destabilization and fragmentation.

Any given country has intrinsic liability for sectarianism and division based on race, religion and culture.

Iraq, as the case with so many neighboring Arab countries like Syria, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, harbored communities of Shia, Sunni and Kurds.

The plan was simple; it always is when it is related to inflaming sectarian conflict and building the theatre up for a long civil war.

The goal was to put the Iraqi people under psychological pressure and economic hardships. And that was effectively achieved by the long years of sanctions over god knows what or why.

The German people under the pressure of the 1930s great depression had easily cracked and embraced Nazism, a move that ultimately lead to the destruction of the German army and the fragmentation of the once strong country into Eastern and Western territories.

Iraq has astonishingly showed more resilience and the crack did not show until after the US military invasion and devastation- If there is a god in heaven, I believe Mr. Bush and allies will forever burn in hell for what they did in Iraq.

After the war and as the smoke of the heavy bombardment was still hanging in the air, a series of car bombings – so classic of Mossad agents- began blasting in both the Shiite and Sunni territories.

The country that is being currently raided by the ISIL terrorists is not a unified and one country anymore. Iraq has already been divided into three regions – Shia, Kurdish and Sunni territories.

That’s why ISIL, Guerillas of Sunni terrorists, are advancing easily in the Sunni territories of Iraq.The ISIL militias encountered no resistance from the Iraqi army forces for the simple and painful reason that Iraq has no army anymore. Iraq is a used to be-nation.

The US/EU/Israel made sure to destroy the Iraqi army and do away with the Iraqi sovereignty and now all we, Arabs, could get is a young US Republican politician telling the BBC “I think we pulled out of Iraq prematurely” …. If anything has been prematurely I believe is some of the Arab leaders gullibly believing US could be an ally and a friend.

ISIL vs. Israel: could you tell the difference

Now all you could hear on news bulletins is the silly definition of ISIL as an offshoot of al Qaeda.

What audacity and deception, ISIL or ISIS for that matter is but an ugly and inevitable outcome of the American and western devastation of Iraq.

From the Socio-Political view, Al Qaeda itself is not but the logical and expected result for the Zionist project in the Arab World.

Osama Bin Laden was initially an American operative recruited, financed and trained by the CIA and chances are that Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, ISIL leader is likewise; especially that he was detained and then suddenly released by the Americans back in 2009

ISIS and Al Qaeda is the normal response to the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel.

Creating a military enclave that will gather Jews from around the world, no matter what nationality they once had or what language or culture they bring over with them to Israel is the same mindset and goal of Al Qaeda and ISIS.

In ISIS, as the case in Israel, you would find hordes of extremists from Arab countries, Asia and Europe united only by their shared fundamentalism and militancy.

It is worth mentioning here that the creed of ISIL is primarily carved by the theorists of the Muslim Brotherhood, namely the notorious Sayed Kotb who envisioned all non MB as infidels (who should be killed if did not repent)

What the Zionists are doing in Israel is exactly what ISIL or Al Qaeda is aspiring to achieve.Al Qaeda and ISIL are fighting for the same vicious Zionist dream that is ironically celebrated by the west.

Israel wants the Arabs to acknowledge it as the Jewish state that is founded according to the laws and history of Judaism, and at the same time ISIS and its savage terrorists are trying to create an Islamic caliphate that abide by the laws of Quran and Sharia. Could you see the similarities here? Could anyone tell the difference?

Is it so hard to feel the extremism, and the wind of belligerence, that is sweeping across the Middle East ever since the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel? It is the very same extremism and violence that will lead to an apocalyptic global confrontation.

If the superpowers kept this stupid pattern of bias and double standards, with Israel and Arabs, I’m afraid this end is inescapable.

When secular and national regimes and armies fail to defend its land and people, then it’s time for religious extremism to step in and take over. And that’s when fragmentation and division is two steps away. It is so basic and historically-tested and result-guaranteed. That’s exactly what the US/Zionist plan was all about.

That is why the White House is looking away and mulling all options that will keep US out of the scene for the time being. Obama unfortunately has no appetite now to interfere militarily in Iraq (not even with the US notorious drone attacks).

But of course the Iraqi prime minister could count on the white house’s unlimited emotional support – Good Mr. Obama will mention Iraq in his Sunday prayers.

So nice, but I’m curious to find out what does Mr. Hague think of the superpowers that are constantly in the business of raping other sovereign countries?

Egyptian Scene once again

Now let’s move to Egypt. Let’s imagine that the MB still in power.

The scene would be like the following; Mr. Morsi is supporting Jihadist ISIS in Syria and Iraq and at the same time turning Sinai Peninsula into a new Taliban.

The Muslim Brotherhood carried on with their plan of exhausting and liquefying the Egyptian national army and police forces while at the same time emboldening their Sinai guerillas of Jihadists.

Before we knew it, Egypt would have followed the footsteps of Syria and Iraq, and finally got devoured by sectarian war and would have been divided into 3 minor territories; one for Christian Copts, another one for Muslims and Sinai as the haven for Jihadists and Salafis.

No wonder the US/EU are still supporting MB and no wonder that the gullible, the extremists and the deluded in the Arab world and in the west are still crying over the ousting of Morsi and the banning of MB.

By contrast to the shameful attitude of the Iraqi military forces, the Egyptian army and police forces are carrying out very successful operations to wipe out the jihadists threat from the Sinai Peninsula.

Egyptian military and police forces, and without any outside help or drones, are fighting an honorable war against terrorism all over the country.

Our new president, field Marshal El Sisi, is pulling the country together while keeping his eyes on securing the country’s borders and safeguarding Egypt’s national security.

At the same time Egypt is cooperatively working with its Arab neighbors and Russia (through intelligence and training-sharing) to curb the tide of militant Jihadist terrorism- fueled by MB theorists- now rampant throughout the region.

The chaos theory is effectively engulfing the Arab world and its end result is looming near; a new Middle East is indeed underway.

For more on Egypt and the Middle East visit Dr. Ashraf Ezzat’s website

The views expressed herein are the views of the author exclusively and not necessarily the views of VT or any other VT authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors, partners and technicians. Legal NoticePosted by Dr. Ashraf Ezzat on Jun 15 2014, With 1821 Reads, Filed under Egypt, Iran, Israel, Middle East, Syria, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

HEIST: Who Stole the American Dream? is stunning audiences across the globe as it traces the worldwide economic collapse to a 1971 secret memo entitled Attack on American Free Enterprise System. Written over 40 years ago by the future Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell, at the behest of the US Chamber of Commerce, the 6-page memo, a free-market utopian treatise, called for a money fueled big business makeover of government through corporate control of the media, academia, the pulpit, arts and sciences and destruction of organized labor and consumer protection groups.

But Powell’s real “end game” was business control of law and politics. HEIST’s step by step detail exposes the systemic implementation of Powell’s memo by BOTH U.S. political parties culminating in the deregulation of industry, outsourcing of jobs and regressive taxation. All of which led us to the global financial crisis of 2008 and the continued dismantling of the American middle class. Today, politics is the playground of the rich and powerful, with no thought given to the hopes and dreams of ordinary Americans. No other film goes as deeply as HEIST in explaining the greatest wealth transfer of our time. Moving beyond the white noise of today’s polarizing media, HEIST provides viewers with a clear, concise and fact- based explanation of how we got into this mess, and what we need to do to restore our representative democracy.

As a result of the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, billionaires and large corporations can now spend an unlimited amount of money to influence the political process. The results of that decision are clear. In the coming months and years the Koch brothers and other extraordinarily wealthy families will spend billions of dollars to elect right-wing candidates to the Senate, the House, governors’ mansions and the presidency of the United States. These billionaires already own much of our economy. That, apparently, is not enough. Now, they want to own the United States government as well.

Four years ago, the Supreme Court handed down the 5-4 ruling in Citizens United vs the Federal Election Commission. A few weeks ago, they announced another horrendous campaign finance decision in McCutcheon vs. FEC giving even more political power to the rich. Now, many Republicans want to push this Supreme Court to go even further. In the name of “free speech,” they want the Court to eliminate all restrictions on campaign spending — a position that Justice Thomas supported in McCutcheon — and a view supported by the Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Importantly, as a means of being able to exercise unprecedented power over the political process, this has been the position of the Koch brothers for at least the last 34 years.

The Koch brothers are the second wealthiest family in America, making most of their money in the fossil fuel industry. According to Forbes Magazine, they saw their wealth increase last year from $68 billion to $80 billion. In other words, under the “anti-business”, “socialist” and “oppressive” Obama administration, their wealth went up by $12 billion in one year.

In their 2012 campaigns, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney each spent a little more than $1 billion. For the Koch brothers, spending more than Obama and Romney combined would be a drop in their bucket. They would hardly miss the few billion dollars.

Given the reality that the Koch brothers are now the most important and powerful players in American politics, it is important to know what they want and what their agenda is.

It is not widely known that David Koch was the Libertarian Party vice-presidential candidate in 1980. He believed that Ronald Reagan was much too liberal. Despite Mr. Koch putting a substantial sum of money into the campaign, his ticket only received 1 percent of the vote. Most Americans thought the Libertarian Party platform of 1980 was extremist and way out of touch with what the American people wanted and needed.

Fast-forward 34 years and the most significant reality of modern politics is how successful David Koch and like-minded billionaires have been in moving the Republican Party to the extreme right. Amazingly, much of what was considered “extremist” and “kooky” in 1980 has become part of today’s mainstream Republican thinking.

Let me give you just a few examples:

In 1980, Libertarian vice-presidential candidate David Koch ran on a platform that called for abolishing the minimum wage. Thirty-four years ago, that was an extreme view of a fringe party that had the support of 1 percent of the American people. Today, not only does virtually every Republican in Congress oppose raising the $7.25 an hour minimum wage, many of them, including Republican leaders like Mitch McConnell and John McCain, are on record for abolishing the concept of the federal minimum wage.

In 1980, the platform of David Koch’s Libertarian Party favored “the abolition of Medicare and Medicaid programs.” Thirty-four years ago, that was an extreme view of a fringe party that had the support of one percent of the American people. Today, the mainstream view of the Republican Party, as seen in the recently passed Ryan budget, is to end Medicare as we know it, cut Medicaid by more than $1.5 trillion over the next decade, and repeal the Affordable Care Act. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, “Under the Ryan plan, at least 40 million people — 1 in 8 Americans — would lose health insurance or fail to obtain insurance by 2024. Most of them would be people with low or moderate incomes.”

In 1980, the platform of David Koch’s Libertarian Party called for “the repeal of the fraudulent, virtually bankrupt, and increasingly oppressive Social Security system.” Thirty-four years ago, that was an extreme view of a fringe party that had the support of 1 percent of the American people. Today, the mainstream view of the Republican Party is that “entitlement reform” is absolutely necessary. For some, this means major cuts in Social Security. For others who believe Social Security is unconstitutional or a Ponzi scheme this means the privatization of Social Security or abolishing this program completely for those who are under 60 years of age.

In 1980, David Koch’s Libertarian Party platform stated “We oppose all personal and corporate income taxation, including capital gains taxes … We support the eventual repeal of all taxation … As an interim measure, all criminal and civil sanctions against tax evasion should be terminated immediately.” Thirty-four years ago, that was an extreme view of a fringe party that had the support of 1 percent of the American people. Today, 75 Republicans in the House have co-sponsored a bill that Paul Ryan has said “would eliminate taxes on wages, corporations, self-employment, capital gains, and gift and death taxes in favor of a personal-consumption tax.”

Here is what every American should be deeply concerned about. The Koch brothers, through the expenditure of billions of dollars and the creation and support of dozens of extreme right organizations, have taken fringe extremist ideas and made them mainstream within the Republican Party. And now with Citizens United (which is allowing them to pour unlimited sums of money into the political process) their power is greater than ever.

And let’s be very clear. Their goal is not only to defund Obamacare, cut Social Security, oppose an increase in the minimum wage or cut federal funding for education. Their world view and eventual goal is much greater than all of that. They want to repeal every major piece of legislation that has been signed into law over the past 80 years that has protected the middle class, the elderly, the children, the sick and the most vulnerable in this country. Every piece of legislation!

The truth is that the agenda of the Koch brothers is to move this country from a democratic society with a strong middle class to an oligarchic form of society in which the economic and political life of the nation are controlled by a handful of billionaire families.

Our great nation must not be hijacked by right-wing billionaires like the Koch brothers.

For the sake of our children and our grandchildren, we must fight back.

Why Noam Chomsky Is Such an Effective Thorn in the Side of the Corporate State

The force of Chomsky’s intellect, combined with a ferocious independence continues to shift the debate.

Chomsky

June 16, 2014 |

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Noam Chomsky, whom I interviewed last Thursday at his office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has influenced intellectuals in the United States and abroad in incalculable ways. His explications of empire, mass propaganda, the hypocrisy and pliability of the liberal class and the failings of academics, as well as the way language is used as a mask by the power elite to prevent us from seeing reality, make him the most important intellectual in the country. The force of his intellect, which is combined with a ferocious independence, terrifies the corporate state—which is why the commercial media and much of the academic establishment treat him as…

A group of four national trade organizations sued the state of Vermont over its new law requiring labels on foods with genetically modified ingredients, scheduled to go into effect in July 2016. They claim the requirement is unconstitutional.

Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), the Snack Food Association (SFA), International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) say that food made with genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, are safe and do not need to be specially labeled. The Vermont legislature passed the bill in April, and Gov. Peter Shumlin (D-Vt.) signed it into law at the beginning of May.

“I am proud of Vermont for being the first state in the nation to ensure that Vermonters will know what is in their food. The Legislature has spoken loud and clear through its passage of this bill,” he said in a statement after the bill passed.

Legislators knew that major food companies like Monsanto Co. and DuPont Co – the leading producers of GMO crops – were likely to challenge the law in courts. Attorney General William Sorrell said he advised lawmakers while they deliberated the bill that it would invite a lawsuit from affected companies, “and it would be a heck of a fight, but we would zealously defend the law,” he noted Thursday, according to the Burlington Free Press.

To defend the legislation, Vermont allocated a $1.5 million legal defense fund in the measure, to be paid for with settlements won by the state. However, even this amount might not be enough to cover the state’s legal bills.

The trade groups involved in the lawsuit called the labeling requirement “a costly and misguided measure that will set the nation on a path toward a 50-state patchwork of GMO labeling policies that do nothing to advance the health and safety of consumers,” GMA said in a statement.

“With zero justification in health, safety or science, the State of Vermont has imposed a burdensome mandate on manufacturers that unconstitutionally compels speech and interferes with interstate commerce,” NAM wrote in its statement.

The US Food and Drug Administration ruled in 1994 that food from genetically modified plants is not materially different from other food. But critics of GMO foods consider them environmentally suspect and a possible health threat. Labeling supporters say the law gives consumers more information about their food than they had previously.

“The people of Vermont have said loud and clear they have a right to know what is in their food,” said Falko Schilling, consumer protection advocate with the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, according to the Free Press. “Putting labels on is a reasonable and prudent thing so people can decide for themselves.”

BIO, a trade group that includes the major GMO-producing companies, told Reuters that mandatory labeling laws would raise costs $400 a year for the average household. The plaintiffs went into detail about where those costs would come from, as well as how the law affects interstate commerce.

“They must revise hundreds of thousands of product packages, from the small to the super-sized,” the lawsuit said. “Then, they must establish Vermont-only distribution channels to ensure that the speech Vermont is forcing them to say, or not say, is conveyed in that state.”

The Green Mountain State’s law does not apply to meat, eggs or dairy from animals who were fed genetically modified grains, according to Organic Authority. Restaurants are also exempt. In the court filing, the plaintiffs say that the law’s exemptions create big gaps in information, the Free Press reported.

The trade groups also took on the state’s legal defense funding in the complaint, which requires private dollars be used before the state’s $1.5 million. “The state’s unwillingness to use its own funds to administer and defend Act 120 is express confirmation that Vermont does not have a ‘state’ interest in the survival of the law,” the lawsuit reads.

But the attorney general disputes that interpretation, as did the governor.

“We have been gearing up,” Sorrell told the Free Press over the phone on Thursday.

“Now, as we expected all along, that fight will head to the courts,” Shumlin said to the Associated Press.

Vermont was the first state in the country to pass a “trigger-clause free” GMO-labeling law, while Maine and Connecticut both passed legislation that include triggers. In the case of the Nutmeg State, four additional states, one of which must border Connecticut, must pass labeling laws as well before its law goes into effect.

But their monopoly over the global economy does not end at the edge of the oil patch. According to company 10K filings to the SEC, the Four Horsemen of Banking are among the top ten stock holders of virtually every Fortune 500 corporation.[1]

So who then are the stockholders in these money center banks?

This information is guarded much more closely. My queries to bank regulatory agencies regarding stock ownership in the top 25 US bank holding companies were given Freedom of Information Act status, before being denied on “national security” grounds. This is rather ironic, since many of the bank’s stockholders reside in Europe.

One important repository for the wealth of the global oligarchy that owns these bank holding companies is US Trust Corporation – founded in 1853 and now owned by Bank of America.

J. W. McCallister, an oil industry insider with House of Saud connections, wrote in The Grim Reaper that information he acquired from Saudi bankers cited 80% ownership of the New York Federal Reserve Bank – by far the most powerful Fed branch – by just eight families, four of which reside in the US.

Schauf lists William Rockefeller, Paul Warburg, Jacob Schiff and James Stillman as individuals who own large shares of the Fed. [3]

The Schiffs are insiders at Kuhn Loeb. The Stillmans are Citigroup insiders, who married into the Rockefeller clan at the turn of the century.

Eustace Mullins came to the same conclusions in his book The Secrets of the Federal Reserve, in which he displays charts connecting the Fed and its member banks to the families of Rothschild, Warburg, Rockefeller and the others. [4]

The control that these banking families exert over the global economy cannot be overstated and is quite intentionally shrouded in secrecy. Their corporate media arm is quick to discredit any information exposing this private central banking cartel as “conspiracy theory”.

Yet the facts remain.

The House of Morgan

The Federal Reserve Bank was born in 1913, the same year US banking scion J. Pierpont Morgan died and the Rockefeller Foundation was formed.

The House of Morgan presided over American finance from the corner of Wall Street and Broad, acting as quasi-US central bank since 1838, when George Peabody founded it in London.

Peabody was a business associate of the Rothschilds. In 1952 Fed researcher Eustace Mullins put forth the supposition that the Morgans were nothing more than Rothschild agents.

Mullins wrote that the Rothschilds,

“…preferred to operate anonymously in the US behind the facade of J.P. Morgan & Company”. [5]

Author Gabriel Kolko stated,

“Morgan’s activities in 1895-1896 in selling US gold bonds in Europe were based on an alliance with the House of Rothschild.” [6]

The Morgan financial octopus wrapped its tentacles quickly around the globe. Morgan Grenfell operated in London. Morgan et Ce ruled Paris. The Rothschild’s Lambert cousins set up Drexel & Company in Philadelphia.

It financed the launch of AT&T, General Motors, General Electric and DuPont.

Like the London-based Rothschild and Barings banks, Morgan became part of the power structure in many countries.

By 1890 the House of Morgan was lending to Egypt’s central bank, financing Russian railroads, floating Brazilian provincial government bonds and funding Argentine public works projects. A recession in 1893 enhanced Morgan’s power. That year Morgan saved the US government from a bank panic, forming a syndicate to prop up government reserves with a shipment of $62 million worth of Rothschild gold. [7]

Morgan was the driving force behind Western expansion in the US, financing and controlling West-bound railroads through voting trusts. In 1879 Cornelius Vanderbilt’s Morgan-financed New York Central Railroad gave preferential shipping rates to John D. Rockefeller’s budding Standard Oil monopoly, cementing the Rockefeller/Morgan relationship.

The House of Morgan now fell under Rothschild and Rockefeller family control. A New York Herald headline read, “Railroad Kings Form Gigantic Trust”.

J. Pierpont Morgan, who once stated,

“Competition is a sin”, now opined gleefully, “Think of it. All competing railroad traffic west of St. Louis placed in the control of about thirty men.” [8]

Morgan and Edward Harriman’s banker Kuhn Loeb held a monopoly over the railroads, while banking dynasties Lehman, Goldman Sachs and Lazard joined the Rockefellers in controlling the US industrial base. [9]

In 1903 Banker’s Trust was set up by the Eight Families. Benjamin Strong of Banker’s Trust was the first Governor of the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

The 1913 creation of the Fed fused the power of the Eight Families to the military and diplomatic might of the US government. If their overseas loans went unpaid, the oligarchs could now deploy US Marines to collect the debts.

Morgan, Chase and Citibank formed an international lending syndicate.

The House of Morgan was cozy with the British House of Windsor and the Italian House of Savoy. The Kuhn Loebs, Warburgs, Lehmans, Lazards, Israel Moses Seifs and Goldman Sachs also had close ties to European royalty.

By 1895 Morgan controlled the flow of gold in and out of the US.

The first American wave of mergers was in its infancy and was being promoted by the bankers. In 1897 there were sixty-nine industrial mergers. By 1899 there were twelve-hundred. In 1904 John Moody – founder of Moody’s Investor Services – said it was impossible to talk of Rockefeller and Morgan interests as separate. [10]

Public distrust of the combine spread. Many considered them traitors working for European old money. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, Andrew Carnegie’s US Steel and Edward Harriman’s railroads were all financed by banker Jacob Schiff at Kuhn Loeb, who worked closely with the European Rothschilds.

Several Western states banned the bankers. Populist preacher William Jennings Bryan was thrice the Democratic nominee for President from 1896 -1908. The central theme of his anti-imperialist campaign was that America was falling into a trap of “financial servitude to British capital”.

Teddy Roosevelt defeated Bryan in 1908, but was forced by this spreading populist wildfire to enact the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. He then went after the Standard Oil Trust.

In 1912 the Pujo hearings were held, addressing concentration of power on Wall Street. That same year Mrs. Edward Harriman sold her substantial shares in New York’s Guaranty Trust Bank to J.P. Morgan, creating Morgan Guaranty Trust. Judge Louis Brandeis convinced President Woodrow Wilson to call for an end to interlocking board directorates. In 1914 the Clayton Anti-Trust Act was passed.

Jack Morgan – J. Pierpont’s son and successor – responded by calling on Morgan clients Remington and Winchester to increase arms production. He argued that the US needed to enter WWI.

Goaded by the Carnegie Foundation and other oligarchy fronts, Wilson accommodated.

As Charles Tansill wrote in America Goes to War,

“Even before the clash of arms, the French firm of Rothschild Freres cabled to Morgan & Company in New York suggesting the flotation of a loan of $100 million, a substantial part of which was to be left in the US to pay for French purchases of American goods.”

The House of Morgan financed half the US war effort, while receiving commissions for lining up contractors like GE, Du Pont, US Steel, Kennecott and ASARCO.

All were Morgan clients. Morgan also financed the British Boer War in South Africa and the Franco-Prussian War. The 1919 Paris Peace Conference was presided over by Morgan, which led both German and Allied reconstruction efforts. [11]

In the 1930’s populism resurfaced in America after Goldman Sachs, Lehman Bank and others profited from the Crash of 1929. [12]

House Banking Committee Chairman Louis McFadden (D-NY) said of the Great Depression,

“It was no accident. It was a carefully contrived occurrence… The international bankers sought to bring about a condition of despair here so they might emerge as rulers of us all”.

Sen. Gerald Nye (D-ND) chaired a munitions investigation in 1936.

Nye concluded that the House of Morgan had plunged the US into WWI to protect loans and create a booming arms industry. Nye later produced a document titled The Next War, which cynically referred to “the old goddess of democracy trick”, through which Japan could be used to lure the US into WWII.

In 1937 Interior Secretary Harold Ickes warned of the influence of “America’s 60 Families”. Historian Ferdinand Lundberg later penned a book of the exact same title.

Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas decried,

“Morgan influence… the most pernicious one in industry and finance today.”

Jack Morgan responded by nudging the US towards WWII.

Morgan had close relations with the Iwasaki and Dan families – Japan’s two wealthiest clans – who have owned Mitsubishi and Mitsui, respectively, since the companies emerged from 17th Century shogunates.

When Japan invaded Manchuria, slaughtering Chinese peasants at Nanking, Morgan downplayed the incident. Morgan also had close relations with Italian fascist Benito Mussolini, while German Nazi Dr. Hjalmer Schacht was a Morgan Bank liaison during WWII.

After the war Morgan representatives met with Schacht at the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) in Basel, Switzerland. [13]

The House of Rockefeller

BIS is the most powerful bank in the world, a global central bank for the Eight Families who control the private central banks of almost all Western and developing nations.

The first President of BIS was Rockefeller banker Gates McGarrah – an official at Chase Manhattan and the Federal Reserve. McGarrah was the grandfather of former CIA director Richard Helms. The Rockefellers – like the Morgans – had close ties to London.

Historian Carroll Quigley wrote in his epic book Tragedy And Hope that BIS was part of a plan,

“to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole… to be controlled in a feudalistic fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert by secret agreements.”

The US government had a historical distrust of BIS, lobbying unsuccessfully for its demise at the 1944 post-WWII Bretton Woods Conference.

Instead the Eight Families’ power was exacerbated, with the Bretton Woods creation of the IMF and the World Bank. The US Federal Reserve only took shares in BIS in September 1994. [15]

BIS holds at least 10% of monetary reserves for at least 80 of the world’s central banks, the IMF and other multilateral institutions. It serves as financial agent for international agreements, collects information on the global economy and serves as lender of last resort to prevent global financial collapse.

The BIS promotes an agenda of monopoly capitalist fascism. It gave a bridge loan to Hungary in the 1990’s to ensure privatization of that country’s economy. It served as conduit for Eight Families funding of Adolf Hitler – led by the Warburg’s J. Henry Schroeder and Mendelsohn Bank of Amsterdam. Many researchers assert that BIS is at the nadir of global drug money laundering. [16]

It is no coincidence that BIS is headquartered in Switzerland, favorite hiding place for the wealth of the global aristocracy and headquarters for the P-2 Italian Freemason’s Alpina Lodge and Nazi International.

Other institutions which the Eight Families control include,

the World Economic Forum

the International Monetary Conference

the World Trade Organization

Bretton Woods was a boon to the Eight Families. The IMF and World Bank were central to this “new world order”.

In 1944 the first World Bank bonds were floated by Morgan Stanley and First Boston. The French Lazard family became more involved in House of Morgan interests. Lazard Freres – France’s biggest investment bank – is owned by the Lazard and David-Weill families – old Genoese banking scions represented by Michelle Davive. A recent Chairman and CEO of Citigroup was Sanford Weill.

In 1968 Morgan Guaranty launched Euro-Clear, a Brussels-based bank clearing system for Eurodollar securities. It was the first such automated endeavor. Some took to calling Euro-Clear “The Beast”.

Brussels serves as headquarters for the new European Central Bank and for NATO. In 1973 Morgan officials met secretly in Bermuda to illegally resurrect the old House of Morgan, twenty years before Glass Steagal Act was repealed. Morgan and the Rockefellers provided the financial backing for Merrill Lynch, boosting it into the Big 5 of US investment banking. Merrill is now part of Bank of America.

John D. Rockefeller used his oil wealth to acquire Equitable Trust, which had gobbled up several large banks and corporations by the 1920’s. The Great Depression helped consolidate Rockefeller’s power. His Chase Bank merged with Kuhn Loeb’s Manhattan Bank to form Chase Manhattan, cementing a long-time family relationship.

The Kuhn-Loeb’s had financed – along with Rothschilds – Rockefeller’s quest to become king of the oil patch. National City Bank of Cleveland provided John D. with the money needed to embark upon his monopolization of the US oil industry. The bank was identified in Congressional hearings as being one of three Rothschild-owned banks in the US during the 1870’s, when Rockefeller first incorporated as Standard Oil of Ohio. [17]

One Rockefeller Standard Oil partner was Edward Harkness, whose family came to control Chemical Bank.

Another was James Stillman, whose family controlled Manufacturers Hanover Trust. Both banks have merged under the JP Morgan Chase umbrella. Two of James Stillman’s daughters married two of William Rockefeller’s sons. The two families control a big chunk of Citigroup as well. [18]

In the insurance business, the Rockefellers control Metropolitan Life, Equitable Life, Prudential and New York Life. Rockefeller banks control 25% of all assets of the 50 largest US commercial banks and 30% of all assets of the 50 largest insurance companies. [19]

Insurance companies – the first in the US was launched by Freemasons through their Woodman’s of America – play a key role in the Bermuda drug money shuffle.

The Rockefeller Foundation has close financial ties to both Ford and Carnegie Foundations.

Other family philanthropic endeavors include,

Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research

General Education Board

Rockefeller University

University of Chicago – which churns out a steady stream of far right economists as apologists for international capital, including Milton Friedman

The family owns 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where the national Christmas tree is lighted every year, and Rockefeller Center.

David Rockefeller was instrumental in the construction of the World Trade Center towers. The main Rockefeller family home is a hulking complex in upstate New York known as Pocantico Hills.

They also own,

a 32-room 5th Avenue duplex in Manhattan

a mansion in Washington, DC

Monte Sacro Ranch in Venezuela

coffee plantations in Ecuador

several farms in Brazil

an estate at Seal Harbor, Maine

resorts in the Caribbean, Hawaii and Puerto Rico [20]

The Dulles and Rockefeller families are cousins.

Allen Dulles created the CIA, assisted the Nazis, covered up the Kennedy hit from his Warren Commission perch and struck a deal with the Muslim Brotherhood to create mind-controlled assassins. [21]

Brother John Foster Dulles presided over the phony Goldman Sachs trusts before the 1929 stock market crash and helped his brother overthrow governments in Iran and Guatemala. Both were Skull & Bones, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) insiders and 33rd Degree Masons. [22]

The family is a major funder of the eugenics movement which spawned Hitler, human cloning and the current DNA obsession in US scientific circles.

John Rockefeller Jr. headed the Population Council until his death. [23] His namesake son is a Senator from West Virginia. Brother Winthrop Rockefeller was Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas and remains the most powerful man in that state.

In an October 1975 interview with Playboy magazine, Vice-President Nelson Rockefeller – who was also Governor of New York – articulated his family’s patronizing worldview,

“I am a great believer in planning – economic, social, political, military, total world planning.”

But of all the Rockefeller brothers, it is Trilateral Commission (TC) founder and Chase Manhattan Chairman David who has spearheaded the family’s fascist agenda on a global scale.

He defended,

the Shah of Iran

the South African apartheid regime

the Chilean Pinochet junta

He was the biggest financier of the CFR, the TC and (during the Vietnam War) the Committee for an Effective and Durable Peace in Asia – a contract bonanza for those who made their living off the conflict.

Nixon asked him to be Secretary of Treasury, but Rockefeller declined the job, knowing his power was much greater at the helm of the Chase.

“David Rockefeller met with twenty-seven heads of state, including the rulers of Russia and Red China.”

Following the 1975 Nugan Hand Bank/CIA coup against Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, his British Crown-appointed successor Malcolm Fraser sped to the US, where he met with President Gerald Ford after conferring with David Rockefeller. [24]

He gave George Washington his oaths of office while he was Grand Master of the New York Grand Lodge of Freemasons. Washington himself was Grand Master of the Virginia Lodge. Of the General Officers in the Revolutionary Army, thirty-three were Masons. This was highly symbolic since 33rd Degree Masons become Illuminated. [1]

Populist founding fathers led by,

John Adams

Thomas Jefferson

James Madison

Thomas Paine,

…none of whom were Masons, wanted to completely severe ties with the British Crown, but were overruled by the Masonic faction led by,

Washington

Hamilton

Joseph Warren, Grand Master of the St. Andrews Lodge in Boston General,

…who wanted to,

“defy Parliament but remain loyal to the Crown”.

St. Andrews Lodge was the hub of New World Masonry and began issuing Knights Templar Degrees in 1769. [2]

General Joseph Warren

All US Masonic lodges are to this day warranted by the British Crown, whom they serve as a global intelligence and counterrevolutionary subversion network.

Their most recent initiative is the Masonic Child Identification Program (CHIP). According to Wikipedia, the CHIP programs allow parents the opportunity to create a kit of identifying materials for their child, free of charge. The kit contains a fingerprint card, a physical description, a video, computer disk, or DVD of the child, a dental imprint, and a DNA sample.

The First Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia in 1774 under the Presidency of Peyton Randolph, who succeeded Washington as Grand Master of the Virginia Lodge.

The Second Continental Congress convened in 1775 under the Presidency of Freemason John Hancock. Peyton’s brother William succeeded him as Virginia Lodge Grand Master and became the leading proponent of centralization and federalism at the First Constitutional Convention in 1787. The federalism at the heart of the US Constitution is identical to the federalism laid out in the Freemason’s Anderson’s Constitutions of 1723.

William Randolph became the nation’s first Attorney General and Secretary of State under George Washington. His family returned to England loyal to the Crown. John Marshall, the nation’s first Supreme Court Justice, was also a Mason. [3]

When Benjamin Franklin journeyed to France to seek financial help for American revolutionaries, his meetings took place at Rothschild banks. He brokered arms sales via German Mason Baron von Steuben. His Committees of Correspondence operated through Freemason channels and paralleled a British spy network.

In 1776 Franklin became de facto Ambassador to France. In 1779 he became Grand Master of the French Neuf Soeurs (Nine Sisters) Lodge, to which John Paul Jones and Voltaire belonged. Franklin was also a member of the more secretive Royal Lodge of Commanders of the Temple West of Carcasonne, whose members included Frederick Prince of Whales.

While Franklin preached temperance in the US, he cavorted wildly with his Lodge brothers in Europe. Franklin served as Postmaster General from the 1750’s to 1775 – a role traditionally relegated to British spies. [4]

With Rothschild financing Alexander Hamilton founded two New York banks, including Bank of New York. [5]

He died in a gun battle with Aaron Burr, who founded Bank of Manhattan with Kuhn Loeb financing.

Hamilton exemplified the contempt which the Eight Families hold towards common people, once stating,

“All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and the well born, the others the mass of the people… The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge and determine right. Give therefore to the first class a distinct, permanent share of government. They will check the unsteadiness of the second.” [6]

Hamilton was only the first in a series of Eight Families cronies to hold the key position of Treasury Secretary.

Obama Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner worked at Kissinger Associates and the New York Fed

Thomas Jefferson argued that the United States needed a publicly-owned central bank so that European monarchs and aristocrats could not use the printing of money to control the affairs of the new nation.

Jefferson extolled,

“A country which expects to remain ignorant and free…expects that which has never been and that which will never be. There is scarcely a King in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of Pharaoh – get first all the people’s money, then all their lands and then make them and their children servants forever…banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies. Already they have raised up a money aristocracy.”

Jefferson watched as the Euro-banking conspiracy to control the United States unfolded, weighing in,

“Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of the day, but a series of oppressions begun at a distinguished period, unalterable through every change of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing us to slavery”. [7]

But the Rothschild-sponsored Hamilton’s arguments for a private US central bank carried the day.

In 1791 the Bank of the United States (BUS) was founded, with the Rothschilds as main owners. The bank’s charter was to run out in 1811. Public opinion ran in favor of revoking the charter and replacing it with a Jeffersonian public central bank. The debate was postponed as the nation was plunged by the Euro-bankers into the War of 1812.

Amidst a climate of fear and economic hardship, Hamilton’s bank got its charter renewed in 1816.

Old Hickory, Honest Abe & Camelot

In 1828 Andrew Jackson took a run at the US Presidency.

Throughout his campaign he railed against the international bankers who controlled the BUS.

Jackson ranted,

“You are a den of vipers. I intend to expose you and by Eternal God I will rout you out. If the people understood the rank injustices of our money and banking system there would be a revolution before morning.”

Jackson won the election and revoked the bank’s charter stating,

“The Act seems to be predicated on an erroneous idea that the present shareholders have a prescriptive right to not only the favor, but the bounty of the government… for their benefit does this Act exclude the whole American people from competition in the purchase of this monopoly.

Present stockholders and those inheriting their rights as successors be established a privileged order, clothed both with great political power and enjoying immense pecuniary advantages from their connection with government.

Should its influence be concentrated under the operation of such an Act as this, in the hands of a self-elected directory whose interests are identified with those of the foreign stockholders, will there not be cause to tremble for the independence of our country in war… controlling our currency, receiving our public monies and holding thousands of our citizens independence, it would be more formidable and dangerous than the naval and military power of the enemy.

It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government for selfish purposes… to make the rich richer and more powerful. Many of our rich men have not been content with equal protection and equal benefits, but have besought us to make them richer by acts of Congress.

I have done my duty to this country.” [8]

Populism prevailed and Jackson was re-elected. In 1835 he was the target of an assassination attempt.

The gunman was Richard Lawrence, who confessed that he was,

“in touch with the powers in Europe”. [9]

Still, in 1836 Jackson refused to renew the BUS charter.

Under his watch the US national debt went to zero for the first and last time in our nation’s history. This angered the international bankers, whose primary income is derived from interest payments on debt. BUS President Nicholas Biddle cut off funding to the US government in 1842, plunging the US into a depression.

Biddle was an agent for the Paris-based Jacob Rothschild. [10]

The Mexican War was simultaneously sprung on Jackson. A few years later the Civil War was unleashed, with London bankers backing the Union and French bankers backing the South. The Lehman family made a fortune smuggling arms to the south and cotton to the north. By 1861 the US was $100 million in debt. New President Abraham Lincoln snubbed the Euro-bankers again, issuing Lincoln Greenbacks to pay Union Army bills.

The Rothschild-controlled Times of London wrote,

“If that mischievous policy, which had its origins in the North American Republic, should become indurated down to a fixture, then that Government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off its debts and be without debt. It will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce.

It will become prosperous beyond precedent in the history of the civilized governments of the world. The brains and the wealth of all countries will go to North America. That government must be destroyed, or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe.” [11]

The Euro-banker-written Hazard Circular was exposed and circulated throughout the country by angry populists.

It stated,

“The great debt that capitalists will see is made out of the war and must be used to control the valve of money. To accomplish this government bonds must be used as a banking basis.

We are now awaiting Secretary of Treasury Salmon Chase to make that recommendation. It will not allow Greenbacks to circulate as money as we cannot control that. We control bonds and through them banking issues”.

The 1863 National Banking Act reinstated a private US central bank and Chase’s war bonds were issued.

Lincoln was re-elected the next year, vowing to repeal the act after he took his January 1865 oaths of office. Before he could act, he was assassinated at the Ford Theatre by John Wilkes Booth. Booth had major connections to the international bankers. His granddaughter wrote This One Mad Act, which details Booth’s contact with “mysterious Europeans” just before the Lincoln assassination.

Following the Lincoln hit, Booth was whisked away by members of a secret society known as Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC). KGC had close ties to the French Society of Seasons, which produced Karl Marx. KGC had fomented much of the tension that caused the Civil War and President Lincoln had specifically targeted the group.

Booth was a KGC member and was connected through Confederate Secretary of State Judah Benjamin to the House of Rothschild. Benjamin fled to England after the Civil War. [12]

Nearly a century after Lincoln was assassinated for issuing Greenbacks, President John F. Kennedy found himself in the Eight Families’ crosshairs. Kennedy had announced a crackdown on off-shore tax havens and proposed increases in tax rates on large oil and mining companies. He supported eliminating tax loopholes which benefit the super-rich.

His economic policies were publicly attacked by Fortune magazine, the Wall Street Journal and both David and Nelson Rockefeller. Even Kennedy’s own Treasury Secretary Douglas Dillon, who came from the UBS Warburg-controlled Dillon Read investment bank, voiced opposition to the JFK proposals. [13]

Kennedy’s fate was sealed in June 1963 when he authorized the issuance of more than $4 billion in United States Notes by his Treasury Department in an attempt to circumvent the high interest rate usury of the private Federal Reserve international banker crowd.

The wife of Lee Harvey Oswald, who was conveniently gunned down by Jack Ruby before Ruby himself was shot, told author A. J. Weberman in 1994,

“The answer to the Kennedy assassination is with the Federal Reserve Bank. Don’t underestimate that. It’s wrong to blame it on Angleton and the CIA per se only. This is only one finger on the same hand. The people who supply the money are above the CIA”. [14]

Fueled by incoming President Lyndon Johnson’s immediate escalation of the Vietnam War, the US sank further into debt. Its citizens were terrorized into silence.

If they could kill the President they could kill anyone.

The House of Rothschild

The Dutch House of Orange founded the Bank of Amsterdam in 1609 as the world’s first central bank.

Prince William of Orange married into the English House of Windsor, taking King James II’s daughter Mary as his bride. The Orange Order Brotherhood, which recently fomented Northern Ireland Protestant violence, put William III on the English throne where he ruled both Holland and Britain. In 1694 William III teamed up with the UK aristocracy to launch the private Bank of England.

The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street – as the Bank of England is known – is surrounded by thirty foot walls. Three floors beneath it the third largest stock of gold bullion in the world is stored. [15]

The Rothschilds and their inbred Eight Families partners gradually came to control the Bank of England. The daily London gold “fixing” occurred at the N. M. Rothschild Bank until 2004.

As Bank of England Deputy Governor George Blunden put it,

“Fear is what makes the bank’s powers so acceptable. The bank is able to exert its influence when people are dependent on us and fear losing their privileges or when they are frightened.” [16]

Mayer Amschel Rothschild sold the British government German Hessian mercenaries to fight against American Revolutionaries, diverting the proceeds to his brother Nathan in London, where N.M. (Nathan and Mayer) Rothschild & Sons was established.

Mayer was a serious student of Cabala and launched his fortune on money embezzled from William IX – royal administrator of the Hesse-Kassel region and a prominent Freemason.

It financed the Louisiana Purchase. When several states defaulted on its loans, Barings bribed Daniel Webster to make speeches stressing the virtues of loan repayment. The states held their ground, so the House of Rothschild cut off the money spigot in 1842, plunging the US into a deep depression. It was often said that the wealth of the Rothschilds depended on the bankruptcy of nations.

Mayer Amschel Rothschild once said,

“I care not who controls a nation’s political affairs, so long as I control her currency”.

War didn’t hurt the family fortune either.

The House of Rothschild financed,

the Prussian War

the Crimean War

the British attempt to seize the Suez Canal from the French

Nathan Rothschild made a huge financial bet on Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, while also funding the Duke of Wellington’s peninsular campaign against Napoleon.

Both the Mexican War and the Civil War were goldmines for the family.

Nathan Rothschild

One Rothschild family biography mentions a London meeting where an “International Banking Syndicate” decided to pit the American North against the South as part of a “divide and conquer” strategy.

German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck once stated,

“The division of the United States into federations of equal force was decided long before the Civil War. These bankers were afraid that the United States… would upset their financial domination over the world. The voice of the Rothschilds prevailed.”

Rothschild biographer Derek Wilson says the family was the official European banker to the US government and strong supporters of the Bank of the United States. [17]

Family biographer Niall Ferguson notes a “substantial and unexplained gap” in private Rothschild correspondence between 1854-1860.

He says all copies of outgoing letters written by the London Rothschilds during this Civil War period,

“were destroyed at the orders of successive partners”. [18]

French and British troops had, at the height of the Civil War, encircled the US.

The British sent 11,000 troops to Crown-controlled Canada, which gave safe harbor to Confederate agents. France’s Napoleon III installed Austrian Hapsburg family member Archduke Maximilian as his puppet emperor in Mexico, where French troops massed on the Texas border.

Only an 11th-hour deployment of two Russian warship fleets by US ally Czar Alexander II in 1863 saved the United States from re-colonization. [19]

That same year the Chicago Tribune blasted,

“Belmont (August Belmont was a US Rothschild agent and had a Triple Crown horse race named in his honor) and the Rothschilds… who have been buying up Confederate war bonds.”

Salmon Rothschild said of a deceased President Lincoln,

“He rejects all forms of compromise. He has the appearance of a peasant and can only tell barroom stories.”

Baron Jacob Rothschild was equally flattering towards the US citizenry.

He once commented to US Minister to Belgium Henry Sanford on the over half a million Americans who died during the Civil War,

“When your patient is desperately sick, you try desperate measures, even to bloodletting.”

Salmon and Jacob were merely carrying forth a family tradition. A few generations earlier Mayer Amschel Rothschild bragged of his investment strategy,

“When the streets of Paris are running in blood, I buy”. [20]

Mayer Rothschild’s sons were known as the Frankfurt Five.

The eldest – Amschel – ran the family’s Frankfurt bank with his father

Nathan ran London operations

Youngest son Jacob set up shop in Paris

Salomon ran the Vienna branch

Karl was off to Naples

Author Frederick Morton estimates that by 1850 the Rothschilds were worth over $10 billion. [21]

Some researchers believe that their fortune today exceeds $100 trillion.

The,

Warburgs

Kuhn Loebs

Goldman Sachs

Schiffs

Rothschilds,

…have intermarried into one big happy banking family.

The Warburg family – which controls Deutsche Bank and BNP – tied up with the Rothschilds in 1814 in Hamburg, while Kuhn Loeb powerhouse Jacob Schiff shared quarters with Rothschilds in 1785.

Schiff immigrated to America in 1865. He joined forces with Abraham Kuhn and married Solomon Loeb’s daughter. Loeb and Kuhn married each others sisters and the Kuhn Loeb dynasty was consummated. Felix Warburg married Jacob Schiff’s daughter. Two Goldman daughters married two sons of the Sachs family, creating Goldman Sachs. In 1806 Nathan Rothschild married the oldest daughter of Levi Barent Cohen, a leading financier in London. [22]

Today the Rothschild’s control a far-flung financial empire, which includes majority stakes in most world central banks. The Edmond de Rothschild clan owns the Banque Privee SA in Lugano, Switzerland and the Rothschild Bank AG of Zurich. The family of Jacob Lord Rothschild owns the powerful Rothschild Italia in Milan.

They are founding members of the exclusive $10 trillion Club of the Isles – which controls corporate giants,

Royal Dutch Shell

Imperial Chemical Industries

Lloyds of London

Unilever

Barclays

Lonrho

Rio Tinto Zinc

BHP Billiton

Anglo American DeBeers

It dominates the world supply of petroleum, gold, diamonds, and many other vital raw materials. [23]

The Club of the Isles provides capital for George Soros’ Quantum Fund NV – which made substantial financial gains in 1998-99 following the collapse of currencies of Thailand, Indonesia and Russia. Soros was a major shareholder at George W. Bush’s Harken Energy.

The Club of Isles is led by the Rothschilds and includes Queen Elizabeth II and other wealthy European aristocrats and Nobility.[24]

Perhaps the largest repository for Rothschild wealth today is Rothschilds Continuation Holdings AG – a secretive Swiss-based bank holding company. By the late 1990s scions of the Rothschild global empire were Barons Guy and Elie de Rothschild in France and Lord Jacob and Sir Evelyn Rothschild in Britain. [25]

Evelyn was chairman of the Economist and a director at DeBeers and IBM UK.

Jacob backed Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California gubernatorial campaign. He took control of Khodorkovsky’s YUKOS oil shares just before the Russian government arrested him. In 2010 Jacob joined Rupert Murdoch in a shale oil extraction partnership in Israel through Genie Energy – a subsidiary of IDT Corporation. [26]

Within months, Sarah Palin had hired former IDT executive Michael Glassner as her chief of staff. [27]

Banned in the USA- Produced and directed by Australian filmmaker John Pilger

Americans now have the opportunity of seeing Australian John Pilger’s critically acclaimed The War You Don’t See on YouTube. The groundbreaking documentary was effectively banned in the US when Patrick Lannan, who funds the “liberal” Lannon Foundation, canceled the American premier (and all Pilger’s public appearances) in June 2010. Pilger provides the full background of this blatant act of censorship at his website. After watching the film, I believe its strong support of Julian Assange (who the US Department of Justice is attempting to prosecute) is the most likely reason it wasn’t shown in American theaters.

Pilger’s documentary centers around the clear propaganda role both the British and US press played in cheerleading the US/British invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. It includes a series of interviews in which Pilger confronts British and American journalists (including Dan Rather) and news executives regarding their failure to give air time to weapons inspectors and military/intelligence analysts who were publicly challenging the justification for these invasions. The Australian filmmaker focuses heavily on the fabricated evidence (Saddam Hussein’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction and links to 9-11) that was used to convince American and British lawmakers to go along with an illegal attack on a defenceless nation (Iraq).

Making News Executives Squirm

Pilger also confronts the British news executives (from the BBC and ITV) for reporting — unchallenged — Israeli propagandist Mark Regev regarding the May 2010 Israeli attack (in international waters) of the international peace flotilla and murder of nine Turkish peace activists (including six who were executed in the back of the head at point blank range).

Although none of the news makers offer a satisfactory explanation for their actions, British news executives show obvious embarrassment when Pilger forces them to admit they knew about opposing views and failed to offer them equal air time. In my view, the main value of the film is reminding us how essential it is to hold journalists to account for their lack of objectivity. Too many activists (myself included) have allowed ourselves to become too cynical about the mainstream media to hold individual reporters and their editors and managers accountable when they function as government propagandists instead of journalists.

The War You Don’t See was released in Britain in December 2010, in the context of a Parliamentary investigation into the Blair government’s use of manufactured intelligence to ensnare the UK into a disastrous ten year foreign war. Government/corporate censorship is far more efficient in the US, and the odds of a similar Congressional investigation occurring in the US seem extremely low.

Edward Bernays: the Public is the Enemy

The film begins with a thumbnail history of modern war propaganda, which Pilger traces back to Edward Bernays, the father of public relations. Bernays, who began his career by helping Woodrow Wilson to “sell” World War I to the American people, talks in his famous book Propaganda about the public being the “enemy” which must be “countered.”

Independent Journalism is Hazardous to Your Health

The most powerful segment features the Wikileaks gunship video released in April 2010, followed by Pilger’s interview with a Pentagon spokesperson regarding this sadistic 2007 attack on unarmed Iraqi civilians. This is followed by excerpts of a public presentation by a GI on the ground at the time of assault, who was denied permission to medically evacuate two children injured in the attack.

The documentary also focuses heavily on the Pentagon’s deliberate use of “embedded” journalists to report the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the extreme threat (often from American forces) faced by independent, non-embedded journalists. According to Pilger, a record 240 independent journalists were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Palestine, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) has killed ten independent journalists since 1992. The War You Don’t See includes footage of a recent IDF attack on a Palestinian cameraman, who miraculously survived, despite losing both legs.

Pilger goes on to talk about the deliberate bombing of Al Jazeera headquarters in Kabul and Baghdad, mainly because the Arab network was the only outlet reporting on civilian atrocities. This section features excellent Al Jazeera footage of home invasions of two civilian families — in one case by British and the other by American troops — who were brutally terrorized and subjected to torture tactics.

The Interview that Got the Film Banned

The film concludes with a brief interview with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who discusses the increasing secrecy and failure of democratic control over the military industrial intelligence complex. Assange presents his view that this complex consists of a network of thousands of players (government employees and contractors and defense lobbyists) who make major policy decisions in their own self-interest with virtually no government oversight.

Pilger and Assange also discuss the aggressive prosecution of whistleblowers by Obama, who has the worst record of First Amendment violations of any president. They also discuss the positive implications of the willingness of military and intelligence insiders to leak hundreds of thousands of classified documents. It shows clear dissent in the ranks about the blatant criminality that motivates US foreign policy decisions.

A picture says a thousand words. Remember that 9-11 was America’s Reichstag fire, a false flag pretext to seize power by the secret gestapo of the 1 % elite. We do not forgive, we do not forget. Guillotine the fascist shadow government puppet masters.